Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Chelmsford Pale Ale Tasting Notes

On May 21, 2009

Here are the tasting notes from the first all grain beer I brewed last April.

Appearance: Copper to light brown. Off-white head.

Aroma: Some pear, fruity aromas from the Glacier Hops. Some toasty notes.

Taste: Present hop bitterness. The issue the judges had with my first APA was it didn’t have enough hop presence. I can tell you that the Columbus hops at the start of the boil have did their thing. The hop flavor dominates but not as much as it would in an IPA. I get some dark caramel, raisin taste from the Special B. Good carbonation.

Overall Impressions: I am happy with it. For a first all grain beer, I am extremely happy with it. There are no off flavors I can detect and I got my hop bitterness to a place where I feel it fits the style.

If I can take a picture of a pint this weekend, I will. Damn things keep disappearing on me before I can snap a photo.

Photo!

Chelmsford Pale Ale

The entire brew log for your enjoyment:

Chelmsford Pale Ale Shopping List

Chelmsford Pale Ale Brew Day

Chelmsford Pale Ale Brew Day Videos

First All Grain Brewing Session Learnings

Beer Bottle Preparations

Bottling Homebrewed Beer

CPA – First Tastings

Red, Wheat and Blue

By Mike

On May 20, 2009

In Brew Log, General

My home town has a large multi-town parade on the 4th of July each year. We live fairly close to the main road of the parade route. So we put out chairs the night before to squat a front row spot for the whole family. Afterwards, we all return to our place for a day of grilling, drinking and socializing. So each year I like to have some great summer brew on tap.

This year I have decided to combine a couple of wheat beers into my American Independence tribute brew session title: Red, Wheat and Blue.

My plan is to brew up 15 gallons of my American Wheat Base beer. Then transform 5 gallons of it into my Strawberry Blonde for Red, keep 5 gallons ‘neat’ for the Wheat and then transform the final 5 gallons into a blueberry wheat…for Blue; hence Red, Wheat and Blue.

Sounds good, eh….?
Now I have to get cracking and plan this brew session out so it will be ready for the 4th!
I’ll post some pics and the brew log once I get started.
I’ll also add the process for my Blueberry wheat as a new recipe on our Recipe page once I get it worked out.

New Recipe Page

By Mike

On May 15, 2009

In General

In case you haven’t noticed, we have added a new feature to Brew-Dudes.com!

A new page option has appeared along the top navigation to complement our postings of all things Brew Dudes.
You should now see a “Recipes” option at the top our page along with the usual: About, Photos, Competitions, and Contact pages.

It’s not flashy, but we put together a single page of links for each of our feature recipes. That way you can easily search the list and link right to the post with the recipe of interest. Check back often for additions to the list, and added recipe info in the future (hopefully).

We hope that makes your Brew Dudes experience a little more useful.
As always drop us an email to let us know how we can modify our content to better serve our faithful readers.

Check out our Beer Recipes Page!

BREW ON!

Malt Extract Milkshake

By John Krochune

On May 14, 2009

In Extract

I have some DME (that’s dry malt extract) in the freezer and I made a malted milkshake using it. Here is my recipe for a Malt Extract Milkshake:

Serves 1

2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream

1 cup of milk

2 squirts of chocolate syrup

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of DME

Blend well. Serve in a tall glass.

Now that I’m all grain, I gotta find other uses for DME. Just kidding. My boy liked it. Thought I’d share.

Chelmsford Pale Ale – First Tastings

By John Krochune

On May 11, 2009

In Brew Log

I should have waited, but I opened a bottle of the American Pale Ale I brewed 3 weeks ago. I should have waited for it to carbonate a little more in the bottle.

Now I think that I made a flat beer. It’s bubbles and makes a nice head but it’s not aggressively carbonated.

Now I worry. Now I think I did something wrong.

Nah. Just passing thoughts. I won’t know for sure until this Friday night.

On the plus side, the hoppiness is there. There seems to be no off flavors. I can’t detect any of the sweetness from the honey malt, but again…it’s a first tasting that was tasted too early.

I’m still sipping it. It’s still pretty good. 🙂